<html>
<body>
CALL FOR PAPERS<br>
<br>
FORMAL APPROACHES TO SIGN LANGUAGES<br>
<a href="http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/~zucchi/FASLcall.htm">
http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/~zucchi/FASLcall.htm</a><br>
<br>
27-31 July, 2009<br>
<br>
This workshop is organized as part of the European Summer School on
Logic, Language and Information ESSLLI 2009
<a href="http://esslli2009.labri.fr/">http://esslli2009.labri.fr</a> to
be held in Bordeaux (20-31 July, 2009).<br>
<br>
Workshop Organizers:<br>
Carlo Cecchetto
<a href="mailto:carlo.cecchetto@unimib.it">carlo.cecchetto@unimib.it</a>
<br>
Carlo Geraci
<a href="mailto:carlo.geraci@unimib.it">carlo.geraci@unimib.it</a><br>
Alessandro Zucchi
<a href="mailto:alessandro.zucchi@unimi.it">alessandro.zucchi@unimi.it</a>
<br>
<br>
Workshop Purpose:<br>
The recognition that sign languages are natural languages in their own
right, and not collections of gestures or impoverished codes lacking an
autonomous grammar, begins with Stokoe (1960). With Stokoe's work, the
methods linguists use to describe and investigate spoken languages are
applied to sign languages as well. In recent years, linguistic work on
sign languages has also developed in formal frameworks, in the areas of
phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. One goal of the workshop is
to bring together researchers from different areas of formal linguistics
who are investigating sign languages. The workshop aims to provide a
forum for advanced PhD students and researchers to present and discuss
their work with colleagues and researchers who work in the broad subject
areas represented at ESSLLI.<br>
<br>
Workshop Topics:<br>
The grammars of sign languages are as highly complex as the grammars of
spoken languages and share with them many universal features, despite the
difference in modality between spoken languages (which use the auditory
channel) and sign languages (which use the visual channel). Yet, sign
languages also differ from spoken languages in radical ways:
morphological information in sign languages is often conveyed
simultaneously by different articulators rather than linearly; moreover,
certain aspects of their phonological, syntactic and semantic structures
are not commonly found in spoken languages. These differences raise an
interesting challenge for existing formal linguistic frameworks, which
are designed to account for the grammars of spoken languages. By bringing
together formal linguists working on sign languages, the workshop should
contribute to meet this challenge.<br>
<br>
Submission details:<br>
Authors are invited to submit an anonymous abstract (personal information
should appear in the text of the e-mail accompanying the abstract).
Submissions should not exceed 500 words. The following formats are
accepted: PDF, Word, RTF. Please send your submission electronically to
carlo.cecchetto@unimib.it by the deadline listed below. The submissions
will be reviewed by the workshop’s programme committee and additional
reviewers. The accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings
published by ESSLLI. <br>
<br>
Workshop format:<br>
The workshop is part of ESSLLI and is open to all ESSLLI participants. It
will consist of five 90-minute sessions held over five consecutive days
in the second week of ESSLLI. There will be approximately 10 slots for
selected papers (20 minutes for talk + 10 for discussion) and 3 invited
talks. <br>
<br>
Invited speakers: <br>
Mark Aronoff (Stony Brook University) <br>
Diane Lillo-Martin (University of Connecticut) <br>
Josep Quer (University of Amsterdam) <br>
<br>
<br>
Important Dates: <br>
<br>
Submissions: March 31, 2009<br>
Notification: April 15, 2009<br>
Preliminary programme: April 24, 2009<br>
ESSLLI early registration: May 1, 2009<br>
Final papers for proceedings: May 15, 2009<br>
Final programme: June 15, 2009<br>
Workshop dates: 27-31 July, 2009<br>
<br>
Local Arrangements:<br>
All workshop participants including the presenters will be required to
register for ESSLLI. The registration fee for authors presenting a paper
will correspond to the early student/workshop speaker registration fee.
Moreover, a number of additional fee waiver grants will be made available
on a competitive basis and workshop participants are eligible to apply
for those.<br>
There will be no reimbursement for travel costs and accommodation.
Workshop speakers who have difficulty in finding funding should contact
the local organizing committee to ask for the possibilities for a
grant.<br>
<br>
Further Information:<br>
About this workshop:
<a href="http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/~zucchi/FASLcall.htm">
http://www.filosofia.unimi.it/~zucchi/FASLcall.htm</a><br>
About ESSLLI:
<a href="http://esslli2009.labri.fr/">http://esslli2009.labri.fr</a><br>
</body>
</html>